rob young, bbc news.this story and many others are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:40 and 11:30pm this evening in the papers. our guests joining me tonight arejohn rentoul, chief political commentator at the independent, and rachel cunliffe, comment and features editor at city am. the pilot of a light aircraft has died after the plane crashed near a landing strip in north essex. essex police says emergency services were called to a "serious incident" in belchamp walter, near the border with suffolk, at around midday. the next of kin of the pilot, who was in his 505, have been informed. a man has been charged with the murder of his mother at the family home in wolverhampton. west midlands police arrested matthew page on friday following the discovery of mary page 5 body at an address injames street. officers have confirmed that the 68—year—old had suffered a head injury. a postmortem examination was inconclusive. officials in the australian city of townsville are deliberately flooding several resid

rob young, bbc news.e pictures we've had in from chile which has been hit by heavy rain in the past few days. this is the moment a waterfall was re—activated by a torrent of rain. the atacama desert is normally one of the driest places on earth and the 60 metre waterfall had run dry for ten years. a lot of dirt in that waterfall. you can reach me on twitter. i'm @regedahmadbbc. i'll be back at the top of the hour with a full bulletin. now on bbc news, a special edition of global questions from rome. with brexit approaching, will the remaining nations of the european union bind themselves together ever more closely, or are there insurmountable fault lines that will continue to divide europe? hello, and welcome to roma, the eternal city. it is a city steeped in romantic history but the people here, it is the pressing concerns of

rob young, bbc news.says it will give mps another chance to vote on brexit at the end of the month, even if theresa may has not been able to negotiate a deal by then. but the housing scretaryjames brokenshire also admitted that that vote might not be what's known as a "meaningful vote" to approve or reject an eventual deal. a little earlier our political correspondent tom barton told me that time is running out for the prime minister. moving towards the deadline, 29th of march, brexit day, less than 50 days. this thursday there is a key moment in parliament. another key moment in parliament! mps will hold a series of votes to get their say on what should happen next. the government is really worried because several ministers have indicated they might resign in order to give their support to backbench moves to force a delay in brexit in order to allow more time to try to avoid no deal. the government is obviously keen to avoid that and so has offered another vote at the end of this month. this is whatjames

our business correspondent, rob young, reports. preparations have been under way for weeks.tarted at ramsgate port at the beginning ofjanuary. the work was meant to ensure the port would be ready at the end of march, should britain leave the european union without a deal. the plan was for seaborne freight to run regular services to 0stend in belgium once it managed to get it hands on some ships, but now the company has now been stripped of its contract. the government says seaborne freight‘s main backer has pulled out, meaning it could not mean its contractual requirements. we first flagged problems with seaborne freight in april of last year, and we have been tracking it since then, both in terms of its attempts to find vessels, which have failed without exception. largely because this port is very small. it is thought that backer, arklow shipping, has withdrawn for commercial reasons. ferry services haven't operated from ramsgate since 2013. the government hopes the port could offer extra capacity should dover become clogged after brexit. so it is still possible ferries wi

rob young.ater search is under way for the missing plane that was carrying footballer emiliano sala and his pilot. the striker, who had just signed for cardiff city, disappeared with david ibbotson over the english channel 13 days ago. two search ships — one privately—funded and one from the air accidents investigation branch — have begun searching the sea bed off guernsey. daniela relph reports. off the channel islands, the search for emiliano sala and pilot, david ibbotson, has resumed. this vessel was commissioned by the air accident investigation branch, to carry out a survey of the sea bed. working close by is this boat, the morven, paid for by the sala family, after a campaign raised more than £300,000 to fund it. preparing to leave the harbour yesterday with the latest sonar technology on board, the morven‘s crew were hopeful of finding some trace of the aircraft. we tow these sonar just off the sea bed and it gives us a very high resolution picture. we can pick out small objects, the siz

rob young reports.art of our wages today to pay for a more comfortable retirement. since 2012, ten million eligible workers have been automatically enrolled in a workplace pension. from april, many of those employees will have to pay a bigger proportion of their pay into their auto enrolment pension pot. according to an analysis of earnings carried out for the bbc, the annual take—home pay of someone earning £15,000 a year will be £a9 lower, someone on £30,000 will take home £253 less. in a few weeks, many workers currently contributing 3% of their pay will have to put 5% in. this is a significant increase relative to what they have been paying to date and this will affect up to ten million people auto enrolled in the last few years. the hit to net pay could have beem bigger, a tax cut for most earners due in april will soften the blow. some of the industry worry the hit to pay could lead people to opt out of saving for a pension. speaking on a recent visit to this factory, the minister in charge said s

rob young, bbc news.d states have escalated further, with moscow saying it will follow washington in suspending one of the key nuclear arms control treaties. president putin said russia would stop observing the cold war treaty — agreed in 1987 to hold nuclear ambitions in check — and now start developing new weapons. from moscow, steve rosenberg sent this report. at the kremlin, vladimir putin and his ministers sent a clear message to washington over the inf treaty — you intend to pull out, do you? well, two can play at that game. translation: our response will be symmetrical. our us partners announced that they are suspending their participation in the inf treaty. so we are suspending it, too. and there was more. moscow, president putin said, would develop new weapons, including a land—based version of this cruise missile, and missiles more than five times the speed of sound. it's a far cry from us—russian cooperation three decades ago, when presidents reagan and gorbachev signed the inf treaty. it elimi

rob young, bbc news. with me is sally gethin.r of gethin‘s inflight news thank you for your time. what happened? thank you for your time. what happened 7 basically we thank you for your time. what happened? basically we have got a very small point to point carrier thatis very small point to point carrier that is probably operating too much on the margins of profitability. it was starting to falter and many of these airlines, especially smaller regional carriers, which flybmi was, operating right at the end of those margins and it is not sustainable going forward when you have a lot of turbulence, for example with brexit, downturn, europe and the middle east are slowing down. 0verall, globally there is and in plain going upwards in passenger traffic according to the international air transport association which represents airlines. although it is worrying, the larger picture globally is still strong. the company has partially blamed brexit. is it the blame or is it that the company was week to begin with? it is a place. in a norma

rob young, bbc news.night in years as the freezing temperatures continue to grip much of the country. the met office has issued warnings for ice in southern and eastern england and warned that temperatures could fall as low as —16 degrees celsius in eastern scotland. it comes after heavy snow brought widespread disruption across southern britain, as robert hall reports. it was a miserable night for so many. police and highways teams working to clear the aftermath of heavy snowfalls. this is the m3 in hampshire. scenes mirrored on the a96 south of keith. lorries just unable to cope with compacted snow and ice. in berkshire, two police officers rescued two children — one of them an 8—week—old baby — from a vehicle which had slid off the road near bracknell. fortu nately, no—one was hurt in the incident. we then managed to extract the two children from the rear of the vehicle and got them safely in our police vehicle to warm up. in areas where snowfall has been heaviest, daylight brought far better condition

rob young, bbc news. releasing millions of tonnes of mining waste that engulfed nearby buildings. at least 110 people are now known to have died in the disaster, hundreds are missing. 0ur science editor, david shukman reports from the site of the dam, in the state of minas gerais. this is pretty much as close as we are allowed to get to the disaster site, you've got some local people here just trying to come to terms with what on earth happened and let me try to explain to you how this disaster unfolded. up in the hills beyond, that's where the dam itself was, holding back a great lake of sludge. it broke, as we know, and a torrent of heavy cementlike mud tore its way down one of these valleys just in the distance there, overwhelmed the cafeteria where miners were having lunch, overwhelmed the offices of the mining company and then it swept into this area where we are now. right in the middle of this little area was a posada, a kind of small hotel with holiday chalets. that was all swamped by the mud. jus

our business correspondent, rob young, reports. flybmi, no longerflying.is also filing for administration. the carrier flew more than half a million passengers last year. its smalljets operated on routes from aberdeen, bristol, newcastle, east midlands, sta nsted and others, to 25 european cities. passengers who have been affected are anxious. i am in belgium at the moment and ijust got the bbc alert that flybmi have gone into administration. all the flights for me to return home are really expensive and flybmi said they won't return the £134 that i initially spent, so i don't know how i am going to get back. flybmi, based here at east midlands airport, says its collapse was unavoidable. it has blamed a spike in the price of fuel and changes in the cost of carbon permits. it said these had undermined efforts to turn a profit. the company statement said "current trading and future prospects have also been seriously affected by the uncertainty created by the brexit process, which has led to our inability to secure valuable flying contracts in europe." today'

rob young, bbc news. catastrophic levels. the tropical nmonsoon rains have already destroyed buildings, forced evacuations, and swept away cars and livestock in a large area centred on the coastal city of townsville. saturday alone is expected to see up to 20 centimetres of rain — equivalent to about a month's average rainfall. phil mercer reports. for four days, parts of northern queensland have been battered by the heaviest monsoon rains in memory. the main reservoir in townsville is so full that vast amounts of water have had to be released, causing majorflooding. the city has been declared a disaster zone. many homes are submerged and streets turned into rivers. dozens of people have been rescued and thousands more moved to higher ground. when we use the words "unprecedented" and "uncharted , " we use this for a reason. we have not been in this scenario before. there has been a lot of rain that has been falling, especially over the townsville catchment, and some of these levels are unprecedented. ther

rob young, bbc news.ople who lost their lives in the accident. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: if sliding down a mountain standing on skis isn't tricky enough — try doing it sitting down — our intrepid correspondent shows us how. there's mr mandela. mr nelson mandela, a free man, taking his first steps into a new south africa. iran's spiritual leader ayatollah khomeini has said he's passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked to church to give thanks for the ousting of their former president, 'baby doc' duvalier. because of his considerable value as a stallion, shergar was kept in a special secure box in the stud farm's central block. shergar was driven away in a horse box the thieves had brought with them. there stepped down from the plane a figure in mourning. elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories. head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith. this is bb

here's our business correspondent rob young.t of our wages today to pay for a more comfortable retirement. since 2012, 10 million eligible workers have been automatically enrolled in a workplace pension. from april, many of those employees will have to put a bigger proportion of their pay into their auto—enrolment pension pot. according to an analysis of earnings, the annual take—home pay of someone earning £15,000 a year will be £49 lower, if they contributions on their entire salary. someone on £30,000 will take home £253 less. in a few weeks' time, many workers currently contributing 3% of their pay will have to put in 5%. this is quite a significant increase relative to what they've been paying to date, and this is going to affect up to 10 million people who've been auto—enrolled in the last few years. so, the potential impact of this change is quite substantial. the reduction in take—home pay could have been bigger, but most earners will also benefit from a tax cut in april. some in the industry worry higher pension contrib

rob young, bbc news.an peninsula, when he arrives in the united arab emirates later. abu dhabi's crown prince has invited him to take part in an inter—faith conference. the trip will also feature a mass on tuesday, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people. it's just coming up to a quarter past nine. the headlines on bbc news... a new search begins off guernsey today to find missing cardiff city footballer emiliano sala and his pilot. hundreds of students join police to search for libby squires, who disappeared in hull on thursday night — police say they're extremely concerned for her welfare. the democratic governor of the us state of virginia, ralph northam, insists he won't resign over a photograph showing two men in racist costumes in his student yearbook. he'd initially apologised but then said he didn't believe that he was in the picture. chris buckler has the story. ralf northam called the photograph on his own college yearbook page racist and despicable. 0n the right of the picture it

rob young, bbc news.ent, iain watson, is in westminster for us this evening. pretty strong political fallout on this? if you are to award a contract toa this? if you are to award a contract to a ferry company that has no ferries this was always going to be contentious. labour are calling for chris grayling to go this evening and privately some conservative mps agree for the buck downing street say that the prime minister still has full confidence in the transport secretary. but this is again putting the spotlight on the government preparations for no deal. the institute for government saying that now preparations for a no—deal brexit cannot be limited to minor disruption. there are a range of government ministers meeting with their continental counterparts in their continental counterparts in the coming week. and as the clock begins to take down, more attention is being paid to what happens if we leave without any deal at all. the owner of topshop — sir phillip green — paid a female employee more than a m

rob young, bbc news.uing into the weekend — after snow causes more travel chaos overnight. russian president vladimir putin, says russia is suspending the cold war—era intermediate—range nuclear forces treaty, after a similar move by the united states. england's minister for schools says pupils should be banned from taking smartphones into school. a high courtjudge has used twitter to urge a mother who vanished with her 3—year—old son to return home. the judge's plea was delivered in a tweet posted on thejudicial office twitter account, using the hashtag "come home olly." mrjustice williams appealed directly to ellie—yarrow sanders to bring missing toddler olly sheridan home, with reassurances that she will be given a voice in court. it's thought to be the first time a judge has used twitter in this way. miss yarrow—sanders disappeared with her son in july, after becoming involved in family court proceedings with her ex—partner. floods in the north—east australian state of queensland have reached what off

rob young, bbc news.tion of new mines and dams in brazil, after the collapse of one mining dam last month left hundreds dead or missing. but the mayor of the town hit by brazil's last such disaster three years says the mining companies have learned nothing. our south america correspondent katy watson reports from mariana, where many of those affected are still living in temporary accomodation. this ghost town that still haunts of those that live in the shadows of brazil's dams. a once vibrant community still scarred. it shows how the village was devoured by the toxic sludge. in the ruins, i met this man. he was born and raised here. this is all that remains of my house, he tells me. ifeel sad, there are so many memories, our hearts are broken. this is the aftermath of the dam collapsed in mariano three years ago. a wave of march that travelled to a wave of mind that travelled to the sea. brazil's worst environmental disaster that it came at great human cost, too. five—year—old manu was one of the people w

rob young, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news.eekend after snow causes more travel chaos overnight. russian president vladimir putin has said that russia is withdrawing from the cold war—era intermediate—range nuclear forces treaty after a similar move by the united states. england's minister for schools says pupils should be banned from taking smartphones into school. floods in the northeast australian state of queensland have reached what officials are calling catastrophic levels. the tropical monsoon rains have already destroyed buildings, forced evacuations, and swept away cars and livestock in a large area centred on the coastal city of townsville. saturday alone is expected to see up to 20 centimetres of rain — equivalent to about a month's average rainfall. phil mercer reports. for four days, parts of northern queensland have been battered by the heaviest monsoon rains in memory. the main reservoir in townsville is so full that vast amounts of water have had to be released, causing majorflooding. the city has been declared

that was rob young in ramsgate.rlier to talk about the fallout. there was a fallout. two other firms will continue to cover this 10%. this was about relieving the pressure on dover. the government has come back and said we were criticised at the time that this was a company with no boats. this day it has plenty because it is backed by this huge irish firm, it would have owned 60% of seaborne freight. therefore due diligence was done but it is clear that what they had not done that ensured that the company had set up a route from ramsgate to 0stend on which this new extra capacity could be piggybacked. yes, a credible firm is underpinning this but the contacts had not been fully signed for a brand—new service from ramsgate without which this extra capacity could not be guaranteed which is why politically labour are so strongly on the attack today after chris grayling for once again being at the heart of what they see asa being at the heart of what they see as a failure. it followed criticism for when he was just a se

rob young, bbc news.after leaving a club, say they have "significant concerns" about her safety. more than 70 officers are continuing to look for libby squire, a student at the university of hull. she was reported missing after getting into a taxi outside a nightclub. humberside police have asked local residents to check their gardens and outbuildings to see if she has taken shelter somewhere. in the last hour, they've given an update on the search. we are supporting libby's family, who have described her as a very thoughtful and caring young woman, who always puts other people before herself. they have said this is very out of character for libby. clearly that raises our concerns about her significantly. i once again urge anyone with information about libby to come forward and pass that information to the police as soon as they are able. elsewhere, search teams are trying to find a missing university student in reading. daniel williams, who's i9, was last seen in a student union bar at the university's w

here's our business correspondent rob young.le retirement. since 2012, 10 million eligible workers have been automatically enrolled in a workplace pension. from april, many of those employees will have to put a bigger proportion of their pay into their auto—enrolment pension pot. according to an analysis of earnings, the annual take—home pay of someone earning £15,000 a year will be £49 lower, if they pay contributions on their entire salary. somebody on £30,000 will take home £253 less. in a few weeks' time, many workers currently contributing 3% of their pay will have to put in 5%. this is quite a significant increase, relative to what they've been paying to date, and this is going to affect up to 10 million people who've been auto—enrolled in the last few years, so the potential impact of this change is quite substantial. the reduction in take—home pay could have been bigger, but most earners will also benefit from a tax cut in april. some in the industry worry higher pension contributions could lead people to opt out of savi

rob young, bbc news.has said she's determined to end the brexit uncertainty, promising to return to brussels with new ideas and to make sure the uk leaves the european union as scheduled on march the 29th. the backstop guarantee to keep the irish border open will be central to any fresh talks in brussels after mps voted last week to seek "alternative arrangements". here's our political correspondent chris mason. after a week when parliament had its say and mps voted to back theresa may's brexit plan if she could change one key part of it, the prime minister has said she's ready to do just that. but what are the new ideas? i asked the border force months ago to advise me to look at what alternative arrangements were possible, and they showed me quite clearly you can have no hard border on the island of ireland, and you can use existing technology, it's perfectly possible. the only thing missing is a bit of goodwill on the eu side. the sticking point is how to keep an open border between northern ireland an

rob young, bbc news.d out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:40 and 11:30pm this evening in the papers — our guests tonight are john rentoul, chief political commentator at the independent and rachel cunliffe, comment and features editor at city am. the prime minister has said she's determined to end the brexit uncertainty, promising to return to brussels with new ideas and to make sure the uk leaves the european union as scheduled, on march the 29th. the ‘backstop‘ guarantee to keep the irish border open will be central to any fresh talks in brussels, after mps voted last week to seek ‘alternative arrangements'. here's our political correspondent chris mason. after a week when parliament had its say and mps voted to back theresa may's brexit plan, if she could change one key part of it, the prime minister has she is ready to do just that. but, what are the new ideas? i asked the borderforce months ago to advise me to look at what alternative arrangements are po

rob young, bbc news.m — the british teenager who ran away to syria to join the islamic state group — say she has given birth to a boy. president trump warns the us will have to release hundreds of islamic state fighters unless the uk and other allies take reponsibility for those jihadists who came from their countries. hundreds of passengers are left with plane tickets they can't use and hundreds ofjobs are at risk as flybmi collapses. many thanks indeed. good evening to you. there were no major upsets in the fifth round of the fa cup, with crystal palace, swansea and wolves all reaching the quarter—finals with wins today. palace progressed 2—0 thanks to jeffrey schlupp‘s early goal against doncaster, a lovely strike with a little help from a deflection. max meyer's effort on the stroke of half—time doubled their advantage, and the league one side couldn't find a response. palace, remember, finalists in the fa cup back in 2016. swansea are also there — into the quarter—finals for a second successive seaso

rob young, bbc news.he arabian peninsula, when he arrives in the united arab emirates later. abu dhabi's crown prince has invited him to take part in an inter—faith conference. the trip will also feature a mass on tuesday, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people. the democratic governor of the us state of virginia, ralph northam, insists he won't resign over a photograph showing two men in racist costumes in his student yearbook. he'd initially apologised but then said he didn't believe that he was in the picture. chris buckler has the story. ralf northam called the photograph on his own college yearbook page racist and despicable. 0n the right of the picture it features a man in blackface and someone in a ku klux klan costume. i am deeply sorry. when it surfaced he immediately released a statement apologising but after countless calls for his resignation the virginia governor is continuing to fight for his political career and now he has changed his story, claiming he wasn't in the picture.

rob young, bbc news. 0ur political correspondent iain watson is at westminster.cal fallout has been to today's news. i guess, if you could award a contract i guess, if you could award a co ntra ct to i guess, if you could award a contract to a ferry company with no ferries of its own this was all was going to be critically contentious but labour privately agreeing with them. downing street says the prime minister has full confidence in the transport secretary. this episode is once again putting the spotlight in the government ‘s preparation for no deal. some suggesting the effect of no deal must not be disruptive. an attempt to get a deal, michel barnier is being visited on another range of meetings with continental counterparts. the unofficial deadline is the end of the month and as the clock begins to kick down, more attention to what happens if we leave without a deal at all. the left—wing democratic senator, elizabeth warren, has announced that she's standing for the us presidency in 2020. mrs warren, a former law professor at harvard university, is expected

rob young, bbc news. shemima begum — the british teenager who ran away to syria to join the islamic state group — say she has given birth to a boy. president trump warns the us will have to release hundreds of islamic state fighters unless the uk and other allies can take reponsibility for those jihadists who came from europe. hundreds of passengers are left with plane tickets they can't use, and hundreds ofjobs are at risk as flybmi collapses. sport, and time for a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre. we're still waiting for our first upset of the fa cup fifth round weekend — could it happen at the keepmoat stadium where doncaster rovers take on premier league side crystal palace? doncaster have it beat a top—flight side for over a0 years but i hoping to do so today. palace are in the fa cup fifth round for the third time in five seasons looking for a place in the quarterfinals forjust 1-0 to 1—0 to palace at the moment after 15 minutes. swansea against brentford also kicked off at apm and it is sti

rob young, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news.ibed as the worst in a lifetime. this is the moment that millions in iran had been waiting for. after his long years in exile, the first hesitant steps of ayatollah khomeini on iranian soil. south africa's white government has offered its black opponents concessions unparalleled in the history of apartheid. and the anc leader, nelson mandela, is to be set free unconditionally. four, three, two, one... a countdown to a critical moment. the world's most powerful rocket ignited all 27 of its engines at once. and apart from its power, it's this recycling of the rocket, slashing the cost of a launch, that makes this a breakthrough in the business of space travel. two americans have become the first humans to walk in space without any lifeline to their spaceship. one of them called it a piece of cake. thousands of people have given the yachtswoman ellen macarthur a spectacular homecoming in the cornish port of falmouth, after she smashed the world record for sailing solo around the world non

rob young, bbc news.rren, has announced that she's standing for the us presidency in 2020. mrs warren, a former law professor at harvard university, is expected to make the fight against economic inequality the centrepiece of her campaign. she's been speaking at a rally in the city of lawrence in her home state of massachusetts — at the site of a historic labour strike in 1912 that was led by women and immigrants. look at any other major issue in america. gun violence. student loan debt. the crushing cost of health care. mistreatment of our veterans. a broken criminaljustice system. an immigration system that lacks common sense and under this administration lacks a conscience. cheering and applause. 0verwhelming majorities of americans want action. huge crowds march on washington demanding change. letters, phone calls, protest, but nothing happens, nothing. why? because if you don't have enough money and you don't have enough connections, washington does not want to hear from you. booing. when government

rob young, bbc news.olf hitler went under the hammer today — the auction sparked outrage, but none of the paintings sold. we'll be live in the netherlands to find out more. a free man taking his first steps into a new south africa. ayatollah khamenei has passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many must say is blasphemous. the people of haiti. because of his considerable value as a stallion, shergar was kept in a special secure box in the central block. he was driven when a that the thieves thieves brought with them. they stepped down from a plane the figure in one, elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories, head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith. this is bbc world news today. the latest headlines the us senator elizabeth warren is launching her campaign to be the democratic nominee for president. the duke of edinburgh surrenders his driving licencejust weeks after a crash that overturned his car and injured two women. seve

our business correspondent rob young has more. nissan runs britain's biggest car plant.and factory was due to get even bigger. after the eu referendum in 2016, the government gave nissan confidential reassurances about brexit. that secured a promise to build a new model, the x—trail 4x4, creating about 200 jobs and securing many more. we've been showing nissan and others that we are committed to getting the best possible deal from the future relationship that we'll be negotiating with the european union. part of that promised investment will not now happen. workers at the plant expect nissan to announce it's cancelling the plan to build the x—trail in sunderland. there is disappointment in the city. there's, you know, not a lot that's manufactured here these days, so it is a shame, yeah. it's not good news at all, not for sunderland, because it's a big employer for the region, you know, so it's bad news. nissan isn't saying anything, but there are likely to be various factors at play. some will point to brexit and the uncertainty is created. but carmakers are also dealin

our business correspondent rob young reports. preparations have been under way for weeks.nuary. seaborne freight was due to run regular services to 0stend in belgium in the event of a no—deal brexit, once it got hold of some ships. but the company has now been stripped of its contract. the £14 million deal was controversial from the start. the contract‘s cancellation has intensified the criticism of ministers. we first flagged problems with seaborne freight in april of last year. and we've been tracking it since then both in terms of its attempts to find vessels, which have all failed without exception, largely because this port is very small. the government has defended the checks it carried out on seaborne. it says the company's main backer, arklow shipping, has pulled out, meaning seaborne could not meet its contractual requirements. it wasn't paid any public money. ferries haven't operated at ramsgate since 2013. the government hopes new services from here could help reduce congestion at dover if there are delays come the end of march. but there is now a big question m

rob young, bbc news. visit the arabian peninsula, when he arrives in the united arab emirates later. abu dhabi's crown prince has invited him to take part in an inter—faith conference. the trip will also feature a mass on tuesday, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people. the headlines on bbc news: theresa may says she has new ideas on brexit ahead of her return to brussels for talks on the irish backstop. a new search begins off guernsey today to find the missing cardiff city footballer emiliano sala and his pilot. hundreds of students join police to search for libby squire, who disappeared in hull on thursday night. police say they're extremely concerned for her welfare. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's richard askam. let's start with a terrific opening weekend in the six nations. england made a real statement of intent with a 32—20 win against last season's grand slam winners ireland. it was ireland's first six nations defeat in dublin for six years. scotlan

rob young, bbc news.e broke out in the port city of chittagong. officials are investigating the possibility that a short circuit caused the blaze. more than 50 other people were injured. at least eight illegal gold miners have been pulled alive from flooded mines in zimbabwe but officials fear dozens more are still trapped. the men were rescued after becoming trapped on tuesday when heavy rains flooded mine shafts. more than 20 bodies have been recovered so far. the government has declared it a national disaster. videos and photographs promoting animal cruelty and illegal bloodsports are being shared on social media, according to a bbc countryfile investigation. in response, facebook and youtube have taken down some of the content, but material celebrating illegal hunting and cockfighting is still accessible, as tom heap reports. from hare coursing to cockfighting, these are the cruelest of so—called sports with gambling at their heart. you may have thought these blood sports lived only in the past but to

rob young, bbc news.m alderley edge in cheshire. welcome. thank you forjoining us. how blunt an instrument is this, though, to automatically increase it for everybody irrespective of their circumstances? it's been one of the su ccesses , circumstances? it's been one of the successes, i think of government pensions policy. i think you had that little clip from amber rudd who said when the contributions rate happened last time, very few drops from it. to get people to do the right thing, you get them, you opt them into something. they don't have to ta ke them into something. they don't have to take action rather than, in order to take action rather than, in order to opt out. before this auto enrolment was brought in from people had to sign up to a pension scheme when you got a job. you would be handed a big pile of documents from your pension scheme and a lot of people never got around to it, com pletely people never got around to it, completely bamboozled by it. this automatically puts them into the scheme

rob young, bbc news.at hargreaves la nsdown, speaking a little earliier he gave us his thoughts on the proposed changes. they had to act on this, we had a small number of very high profile cases where things had gone wrong, there was lots of good regulation in place, both in terms of pension schemes and intensive auditing of companies, but we've had isolated cases such as bhs where things have gone wrong, and it's been clear that further measures are needed to control behaviour company directors, and i think it's unlikely we are ever going to see significant numbers... that's not entirely the point the point is if the directors behaviour and control where they put money when making tough decisions about paying bonuses and dividends and putting more money into pension schemes, i think in that respect it will prove quite effective. i want to pick up on the idea of bonus and dividends in a minute but i want to get back to your point about how likely we are to actually see people go to jail about this, how do

rob young, bbc news.e head of retirement policy at hargreaves la nsdown, and speaking a little earliier he gave us his thoughts on the proposed changes. they had to act on this. we have had a small number of very high profile cases where clearly things haven't gone wrong. there was a lot of good regulation in place, both in terms of the pension schemes and in terms of the pension schemes and in terms of the pension schemes and in terms of the auditing of companies but we have had these isolated companies such as bhs and carillion where things have gone wrong and it has been clear that further measures are needed to control the navy of company directors. i think it unlikely we will ever see significant numbers of prosecutions under the legislation. that is not entirely the point. the point is it will modify directors's behaviour and control where they put the money, when they are making tough decisions about paying bonuses, dividends and putting more money into pension schemes and i think in that respect i

i'm joined by our business correspondent rob young. so what's changed ?time described this as fantastic news for the economy. nissan is not commenting on the reasons for this expected reversal. it needs to be confirmed within the next week, but there are various factors at play here. europe's economies are slowing, nissan sold fewer ca rs economies are slowing, nissan sold fewer cars in europe last year, and it seems that drivers are falling out of love with big diesel vehicles. add to that that there has been a change of leadership at the top of nissan and you can set all of this against the backdrop of brexit uncertainty, because it is utterly unclear what the trading relationship will be between the uk and the european union at the end of march. this expected announcement is about pulling promised future investment. it is not about ending work which is going on. so the implications forjobs work which is going on. so the implications for jobs may well be minimalto implications for jobs may well be minimal to nonexistent. but add to that the concern that

rob young, bbc news.a surprising way to send messages of love and empowerment to sex workers during an unannounced trip to a charity yesterday. as she watched food parcels being prepared for vulnerable women, she decided to write on the bananas. megan's messages included: "you are strong", "you are special", "you are brave" and "you are loved", followed by a heart. those are the main stories this morning. a full weather forecast for you coming up in a little while and we will talk about the weather in just a moment. also, the sport. january has been a month of extreme weather across the world, with north america and canada enduring one of the worst cold snaps in decades, while australia recorded its hottest month ever. it got as cold as —48 degrees celsius in parts of the usa, while in australia temperatures have been pushing a0 celsius. we're joined now by bill borghoff, senior forecaster at the national weather service in minneapolis and seven news weather reporter melina sarris, who is in melbourne. go